Financial support is requested to help fund the annual meeting of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) to be held in New Orleans, LA in November, 1993. These funds will be used to offset the cost of inviting non-member symposium participants who will make substantial contributions to the success of the meetings. The GSA is the largest scientific society in the United States dedicated to promoting scientific inquiry on aging and age-related problems. A major activity of the annual meeting is to facilitate better interaction, dissemination of information, and exchange of ideas among GSA members and non-members. The GSA meeting is back-to- back with the AGS and AFAR meetings. The theme of the 1993 annual meeting of the Biological Sciences is, "The Physiological Basis of Aging: From Molecule to Organism". The diversity inherent in this theme is designed to give attendees broad, in-depth exposure to the major issues involved in aging research, beginning at the molecular level and proceeding to the whole organism. Topics are chosen to address the most salient, current interests of gerontological researchers. Furthermore, the conference theme will encompass both theoretical and practical approaches to the exploration of aging processes by critically reappraising major hypotheses of aging and by proposing future directions of gerontological research. It is expected that the breadth and depth of this agenda will enhance not only the exchange of scholarly ideas among experimental aging researchers, but will also generate excitement for future research endeavors.The topics selected for the conference plan are organized in the following sessions: I. Evidence For/Against Current Theories of Aging. II. Interventions in the Aging Process. III. Molecular and Biochemical Bases of Age-Related Diseases. IV. Recent Advances in the Understanding of Systemic Dysfunctions in Aging. V. What is New in Mechanisms Underlying Dietary Restriction? VI. Cellular Mechanisms and Regulation of Gene Expression in Aging. VII. Oxidative Modification of Cellular Constitutents in Aging. VIll. Insights into the Molecular Biology of the Aging Process. IX. Future Directions of Biological Aging Research: Panel Discussion. The impressive advances made in the last two decades of gerontological research clearly indicate that the aging phenomena involve multi- factorial, biological processes. It follows that exploration of these complex biological processes requires a multi-disciplinary approach with resourceful, flexible experimental directions.The goal of this meeting is to bring together researchers with divergent interests and broad expertise to focus on further understanding of the mechanisms underlying the biological aging process.